4 days in Sequim – What Kelly is laughing about

My adventure to Washington began on Saturday while I was in Baltimore. My mom and Ron Voyage (my mom’s honey who’s last name is not Voyage, but he likes to find good deals traveling and calls himself thus when he does. I call him that all the time) would be flying into Seattle from Kodiak Alaska the next day and I would be meeting them there at the airport. Except, for the last couple of days all of the flights from Kodiak to Anchorage had been cancelled due to freakish thick fog. I was given a list of backup plans in the event that they too would be delayed so I could make my way to their house without them. Therefore, on Sunday morning I was all over the Alaska Airlines app checking the status of their flights.

Sometimes the best flight option is not my preferable time to fly. When I was booking my flights all over Europe, I was just randomly choosing stuff guessing my preferences. I’ve learned that I prefer to transfer in the late morning/afternoon. That way I can pack up while people are awake, get some breakfast, and check out around check out time, and then arrive at my next place around check in time (rather than stowing my bag, quickly assessing what I want with me, and then trying to be back in time to secure a bottom bunk). Because my mom lives 2-3 hours from the airport, arriving and departing from the airport becomes a carefully choreographed dance usually taking into account when my mom and/or Ron are coming or going at the same time. That was how I found myself up before 6am in Baltimore, sneaking out of the house to catch a 7:30 flight that would get me to Seattle before my mom and Ron were scheduled to land.

Occasionally I will put my phone on airplane mode while in flight to save battery (and, you know, because we’re supposed to), but I really enjoy seeing what kind of signal I can get up in the air. As we were flying by this mountain, I got a text message.

My mom was flying out of Kodiak! I immediately lost signal so I wasn’t able to check the Alaska app until we got closer to the ground.

I landed in Seattle around 10am, shortly before my mom landed in Anchorage. The flight from Anchorage to Seattle was delayed, but they would be arriving that day– at 4:30pm. Hooray! I decided to get my steps in by getting to know the airport. I found the sushi place and the bagel place, the main area with the big windows where they had live music (video is on Facebook), all the other fast food alternatives and sit down alternatives. I scoped out places where I could sit down and charge my electronics at the same time. I planned what I would pick up for linner to eat in the car on the way to their house. Finally my shoulders began to ache from the weight of my backpack, so I settled in and caught up on my laptop business. I finally wrote my post about my time in Denver and started reading The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama that had just become available from the ebook library. Surprisingly the 6 hours in the airport flew by. As I sat there working on my laptop, I caught my brain automatically planning my entertainment for the next flight- was my phone and kindle sufficiently charged? What would I read? What podcast would I listen to– wait! I’m not about to fly! I’m about to go sit in the car for a couple of hours and then be at a house! It was strange to hang out at the airport and not be about to get on a plane.

I picked up some bagel sandwiches, a naked juice and a cookie, confirmed and reconfirmed the gate where they would arrive (the next flight out was synchronistically going to Sacramento) and ate my half of the bagel sandwich while they taxi’d in.

Do you remember back before 9/11 when people could go all the way to the gate to say goodbye or meet you for pick up? I don’t, because I was a child! I didn’t travel anywhere by myself! And my mom flew with me to go to college in New York, so the first time I flew by myself was after 9/11. I was really excited to go back in time and greet my mom at the gate.

Here is her plane coming in!

And there she is! Ron is that tall guy behind her.

When I come to Sequim my mom likes to spoil me by taking me to Dockside, their favorite restaurant.

It’s right on the harbor.

Here is the harbor in the winter

I thought I had more pictures of us of basically in the same pose in front of the harbor, but I could only find this one of us in front of a different harbor in January:

Anyway, I always scour the menu and then end up picking my favorite things. Last time we split the seafood salad and the seafood pasta. This time we got the crab fritters (we asked our 12 year old looking waitress if they were similar to crab cakes and, bless her heart, she didn’t know what crab cakes were) which were similar to crab cakes.

We got the stuffed mushrooms and split the seafood salad, which was so delicious I forgot to take a picture. Don’t worry- I will next time! A glass of the house Riesling complemented the whole meal to the point that there was no room for dessert.

I’ve never been presented with such a comprehensive collection of desserts THAT I WANTED. That’s right- usually I can rule out one or two, but I wanted every single one of these. If you are ever in Sequim, this place is the best.

After lunch we had to go to a lavender farm. Because of my job that I no longer have, I was only able to visit my mom in Sequim in the winter when the lavender farms aren’t open. Sequim is the capital of something of lavender, so we went to the original– Purple Haze.